


Mamihlapinatapai

by kastiyana



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Florist, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Wedding Planner, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-21 00:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9522293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kastiyana/pseuds/kastiyana
Summary: They are just two busy men feeding themselves together after a long working day. Viktor, probably was trying to built a diplomatic business relation. even if they never talked about their work at all.Instead of that, Viktor would ask about his childhood, his highschool years; about his family and friends. About his past lovers. At that point Yuuri avoided the subject and directed the conversation towards the food. He didn’t need Viktor knowing he was an antisocial with no romantic life at all. And also, Yuuri didin’t want to talk about personal issues becase the whole situation would get confussing and they are just business partners. Right? They didn’t have to get to know each other so much, the same way he didn’t have to tell his best friend about this “business meetings”. There was nothing to tell.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based in the AU created by @Ingthing- The whole series is here (http://archiveofourown.org/series/639041)
> 
> The title is from a native language from Tierra del Fuego that means "a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin."  
> Also, English is not my native languaje and I don’t have a beta reader so if you notice something weird let me know.

The morning after the cheap greasy noddles he ate with Yuuri was not so pleasant. It was not exactly painful, but his stomach felt heavy and Viktor decided his breakfast would be only a bottle of water and a green apple he had later, just a few minutes before meeting with a new client. Even so, the pleasant feeling of Yuuri’s company was enough to decide he wanted to repeat the experience. Maybe not the food, just eating with Yuuri, just being with him.

But would Yuuri want that? Viktor was normally a confident man; full of himself would some people say. He knew he was charming, handsome and that people liked his cheery personality. He could hold conversation with anyone and even enthrall people to do what he wanted, which was very useful in his line of work were he had to deal with bridezillas and their maids of honor. But was he good with personal meaningful relationships? 

He had friends, of course, but they were just a few and they had become his friends after knowing him through the years. Deep down, Viktor knew he wasn’t so charming as he appeared to be; Chris said he was an airheaded silly man; Yuri said often - in the most offensive and colorful way- he was incapable to hold a promise and that: “It’s a damn miracle you can remember your fucking name”. Mila said he was just a overgrown child. But he didn’t worry much about any of this things because he was doing well. He felt goo with himself. Still, what if Yuuri saw all of this in him if they got close? What if he disliked him? He knew he couldn’t just use his default charming strategies to woo Yuuri; the Japanese didn’t seem like the type that would fall for a smile or him making some flirty gesture while looking nice in a fancy suit. It didn’t feel right either, to use with someone he actually likes the same gestures he used to lure everyone.

Viktor decided to start with simple things, showing up casually with a cup of coffee to have a little chat, and once he even dared to show up with a box of macaroons he got from a client, he tried to sound like it wasn’t a big deal, but secretly he chose the best and prettiest ones to bring them to the flourist. “You are acting like a bird in a mating ritual”, Yurio snorted when he noticed and Viktor just put an offended gesture and said nothing. He knew he was, in fact, acting weird.

The second casual dinner occurred one time a client changed her mind about the flower arrangements, the wedding was in a less than ten days and he had to run to the flower shop to give a notice about it. He could have just called Yuuri and tell him by phone, but where was the fun on that? He showed up late, near eight, asuming Yuuri would still be there. And he was, Viktor catched a sight of him from the outside, he was working dutifully in a bouquet. Viktor couldn't hold up his bright smile and entered.

“Good evening, Yuuri”, he greeted, sitting in the stool near the counter.

“Hello, Viktor... you've got out late from work?”

“Oh, Lord, a client called last minute and... Remember that couple that wanted all in white, flowers, decorations?”

“Yes”

“Well, now they want white and red”  
Yuuri blinked, suddenly worried. 

“And that’s in...”

“Ten days... so I told her it was difficult to change the decorations but she insisted she wanted red roses with the white lilies in the flower arrangements...”, Viktor was starting to sound a bit desperate so Yuuri interrupted him.

“Ten days is not such a short notice and red roses are not hard to get, don’t worry, they just have to pay the difference”

“Yuuri!, thank you, thank you I feel so lucky to found you and this shop!”, Viktor smiled and Yuuri tried to suppress his nerves concentrating in writing down the changes and sending an email to the nursery garden to order three hundred red roses. Viktor took advantage of the moment to ask for his personal number. “That way it'll be easy to contact you in case something like this happens again”, he assured. It was a blatant lie, but a smart one. He got what he wanted; Yuuri’s number.

Once he finished he started to tidy up the things he was working with and then his body betrayed him and growled, loudly. In front of Viktor Nikiforov. “Sorry about that”, he said, sheepishly, but Viktor waved his hand trying to calm him and then declared.

“I’m more worried about you, did you eat something today?”

“A Shawarma... at noon”

“Unacceptable!, we are having dinner”

“Now?”

“Right now”

“Oh.. well... ok, let me grab my jacket and...”

“I’ll get an Uber”, Viktor said tapping his phone. They went to a little greek place and ate something funny looking that in the end it was just Chicken with rice. Those dinners became more frequent and Viktor thought that Yuuri would get the little gestures, read the signs but the florist insisted en splitting the bill, became rigid at Viktor casual touches and refused to have a drink with him. So maybe Viktor was the one reading wrong the situation; He started to think he was the only one that wanted to meet outside work. But that was so confusing, because he had caught Yuuri staring a few times, he noticed the little blush in his cheeks when Viktor flirted; Viktor knew how to flirt and charm people, but his attempts to subtly wooing Yuuri were failing. Maybe he was losing his touch, maybe Yuuri wasn’t interested. Maybe he definitely was bad at personal relations and should stick to be a workaholic loner.

As for Yuuri, he was determined to not make a big deal of the fact that Viktor was having several meals with him. That’s why he never told anyone about it, not even to Phichit. Specially not to Phichit; he would probably see romance where is nothing. They are just two busy men feeding themselves together after a long working day. Viktor, probably was trying to build a diplomatic business relationship, even if they never talked about their work at all. 

Instead of that, Viktor would ask about his childhood, his highschool years; about his family and friends. About his past lovers. At that point Yuuri avoided the subject and directed the conversation towards the food. He didn’t need Viktor knowing he was an antisocial with no romantic life at all. And also, Yuuri didn’t want to talk about personal issues because the whole situation would get confussing and they are just business partners. Right? They didn’t have to get to know each other so much, the same way he didn’t have to tell his best friend about this “business meetings”. There was nothing to tell. 

To be honest with himself, there was a good reason why he was trying so hard to hide this secret ‘meetings’ with his new client. Maybe he thought about him a bit more than he should. Maybe he did notice a lot how nice his eyes were, baby blue, with a shade of turquoise in the light and an intense shade of blue when it was darker. Yuuri had also noticed that Viktor hands looked very soft, at his lips, always glossy with balm, his hair perfectly combed, his perfume a nice wood aroma and his suits always fitted so well and never showed a wrinkle. “I’t his job to be elegant” he added to himself but still. Is impressive to look a person who looks that perfect in the flesh and not printed in the glossy paper of a magazine (but again, he reminded that Viktor image has been, in fact, printed in a glossy magazine).

Yuuri had to admit to himself that Phichit was right: his life was his work and he usually didn’t pay a lot of attention to people outside of his job but, what was the point of admitting any of this things out loud? He wasn’t planning acting on them. A guy like Viktor was a whole galaxy out of his league. Yuuri was just a simple florist, a guy who worked in a tiny family shop, who was prone to get fat and didn’t have any special features in his personality. He was the kind of a guy who looked guys like Viktor from afar, just wondering. Not pining, like Phichit said. He was definitely not pining.

So he had nothing to fear or to hope. Sometimes Viktor came and invited him to get some food because they both were really busy men who didn’t have enough time to eat during the day; and they had casual conversations that were good to build basic trust to start a business relationship. Yuuri knew that, but he betrayed himself waiting for Viktor to appear and felt disappointed when he didn’t. There was times when he thought he saw a special interest in the little glances Viktor directed at him, or in his questions about his life and then, for an instant - just a few seconds- Yuuri dared to hope. They looked at each other intensely for only a few seconds and Yuuri waited for Viktor to say something, anything that indicated that he wasn’t obsessing alone; that there was some reciprocity in this aching, but then those blue eyes aimed something else - the menu, the plate, the salt shaker- and let out a little laugh to dissipate the thickness in the atmosphere and Yuuri once again had to tell himself that there was nothing and he should stop thinking about it - about Viktor- and be professional.

However It was horribly hard to be professional when a good looking guy like Viktor appeared in his shop at night wearing a suit: lilac tie, grey plaid vest that made his waist look so tiny and black pants that extended his legs to the infinite. Yuuri was just a man, he tried not to stare (much) concentrating (pretending to) in the bouquet he was fixing.

“Those are for tomorrow?”

“Yes, for the maids of honor”

“Wow”, Viktor commented looking aimlessly to the florist hands. Yuuri noticed something was odd; he knew the guy wasn’t naturally quiet so he casually asked.

“Something’s wrong?”

Viktor directed his glance to his face and answered.

“Another difficult client”

“Oh... sorry, you can tell me about it, if you want to... if it makes you feel better”

And then, almost forgetting how to breath, Viktor ranted for almost three minutes, non stop, about these Canadian couple; a rich retail heir that according Viktor was so full of himself and his bride that seemed like his mayor fangirl.

“He is so intense”, Viktor whined while sipping cheap tea from the lame mug Yuuri handed him in the middle of his narration, “He wasn’t so bad at the beginning, you know, just a regular fancy wedding, but then he started to ask for really weird things like ice sculptures of himself, white peacocks to appear in the official pictures and now he wants to hire a band that plays a song he composed to himself”

“To himself?”

“Yes!, the song it’s called “King JJ”

Yuuri snorted and fixed the ribbon in the bouquet he was preparing.

“Maybe he should marry to himself instead”

“I thought the same, but I can’t just say that to a client”

“Of course, that would be rude...”

“Well and that’s why he wants Roses and flower crowns for him and his bride”

“Because he is a king”, Yuuri understood and Viktor made a dramatic gesture that meant something like ‘Isn’t that weird?’.

“Well we have enough time to make his royally flower arrangements”, the florist declared, trying to sound reassuring.

“Oh, Yuuri, what would I do without you”, Viktor moaned and then his face was red, because the words slipped without his notice; Yuuri was looking at him, astonished, not so much by the choice of words - because Viktor was a bit in the dramatic side as he noticed in the little time he knew him- the surprising thing was the sincerity of his voice and gestures.

“Well, without me you would have to find another flower shop to make crowns, bracelets and bouquets”

“Yes, but then they wouldn’t be cutted for royalty”, Viktor added dramatically, trying to sound casual and Yuuri smiled lightly.

“Well it’s almost eleven, you should be sleeping... I should be walking Makkachin so... I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning...”,Viktor announced, tired, pissed at himself; at his cowardice, at how bad he was at this kind of intimate, relevant social interactions. 

“At the church I guess”, Yuuri completed the sentence and Viktor nodded silently, turning towards the door, scolding himself in his mind ‘Why are you so pathetic´; and then he heard it. Yuuri sighed and it didn’t sound like a tired sigh or a ‘I’m so relief this annoying guy is leaving sigh’. It seemed exactly as the kind of troubled, smitten sighs Viktor drops when he talks about Yuuri and those sighs he lets go in his apartment when he is alone mad at himself for how hopeless he is when this beautiful man is involved. ‘I’m not a coward’, Viktor resolved and turned his face to the Japanese man, once again and added. “Would you go out with me?”

The florist blinked, very quick and surprised, resembling a startled baby animal and just as adorable, but in a very distinct way.

“Not now, just for the sake of eating but... as a date, someday, a real dinner”

“With real food”, Yuuri added feeling so stupid and feeling all the heat of his body going to his cheeks just to torment him.

“As a date”, Viktor emphasized sounding unsure.

“That would be nice”, Yuuri smiled, still very shy but so sincere that Viktor felt his heart doing acrobacies in his chest

“¡Great!”, the Blond beamed. He actually was beaming like the fact Yuuri accepted going out with him was the greatest thing to ever happen to him, and how that even made sense! “So, see you tomorrow morning... at the church... and then saturday at dinner”

“Ok”, Yuuri confirmed, “you have to tell me where”

“Of course, I have to think yet what’s the nicest place I know first so... i’ll tell you later”

The nicest place. Yuuri gulped, because in a few minutes the whole situation just didn’t look flirty, it definitely was. They were talking, out loud about going out, as a date... If he told Phichit, he would never heard the end of it.

“Good night”, the Russian waved from the door.

“Good night, Viktor”, Yuuri replied trying to remember how to breathe. He wasn’t getting any sleep until saturday, was he?


End file.
